Prison of My Mind
by Atlantean Knight
Summary: He survived a thirty thousand foot fall. He lost the city he loved, and on top of that, the one person who could have possibly saved him. The life of a peasant isn't easy for a king. Reuniting with the one person he hurt most wouldn't be easy either. Muska/Sheeta
1. I

_**prison of my mind**_

_a Castle in the Sky fic_

_by Atlantean Knight_

DISCLAIMER : This brilliant movie is by Hayao Miyazaki. I don't own anything.

Falling.

That's what Muska remembered. Falling as he had once before. But this falling was different. Before, when he fell, he had a purpose. He had fallen by choice. He had fallen because he wanted to find a princess to bring back with him to Laputa. Now… now he was falling because his princess had chosen another. He opened his eyes, seeing the rest of the castle crumbling away broke his spirit even more. He was going to die, he was certain of it. He closed his eyes again. He felt warm arms embrace him, and when he opened his eyes again to see if he was hallucinating, he saw that he was holding a glowing volucite pendant… Her pendant. He put it around his neck as he fell from a good thirty thousand feet in the air. The pendant burst with a bright light that surrounded him, carrying him safely through the air. Well, safe was relative. A piece of falling castle struck his shoulder. It left a gash, and he tried to fly out of the way of the rest of the falling debris. Something struck his back. He curled up and the pendant glowed even brighter. He closed his eyes, knowing that even with her pendant, he could still die. He wanted to.

A bright light pierced through the darkness. Someone was calling… _Muska… Muska… _The Laputian king sat up and found himself in a house. An elderly woman was there. He gasped. "Wh-what? Where am I?"

"You fell from the sky, you know that?" The old woman handed Muska a basket with food in it. She smiled at him.

"The… the sky…" Muska went silent for a while and looked at the basket. He noticed that the pendant was still around his neck. He gasped. He tried to roll out of the bed, but a sharp pain shot through his back. He fell onto the bed and held back a pained cry.

"You should rest, Muska. I'll bring you food so you can recover."

Muska nodded to the old woman. He then thought of something. "How do you know my name?"

The old woman laughed. "You had been awake for a while there, and I asked you. But then you passed out again, I believe it's been a week since you passed out."

A week… He shook his head. "Well, thank you... for saving me…"

The old woman nodded. She stood up and left the house, leaving Muska alone with his thoughts.

What else did he remember? He remembered his mother's voice… a voice he hadn't heard in a very long time. He heard his father too, a noble king… a king proud of his son, the little prince. How long ago had it been? Hundreds of years… But Muska looked not a day over thirty. He had survived because of his pure Laputian blood… it kept him young, and allowed him to alternate between appearances. He had changed his hair color more than once, he had also changed his eyes, and often had worn glasses. But he had eventually returned to his original appearance, handsome, golden hair, golden eyes. That was the face that she knew… the face that Sheeta knew. He had kept the glasses, not because he needed them, but they made him appear more… refined.

Another thing Muska remembered was his time alone in Laputa. When he had been four, most of the other cities around Laputa had crashed to the ground, and the survivors had to learn how to lead human lives… normal lives. A normal life was not what the young prince of Laputa wanted. In Laputa, he had been Romuska Palo Ul Laputa, the rightful heir. He had come to earth with one purpose. He wanted to find a suitable queen and bring her back to Laputa. He was seven when he found himself on the land. He had met an old man who had taken him in as a son. He had told the man that he was a prince from a land in the sky. The man asked his name.

"_I'm Romuska Palo Ul Laputa, the rightful heir."_

"_You should have a more… human… name here. Here, you can just be Muska."_

And so it had been that Muska was sent to school, sent to go learn with the other human children. And he excelled at everything he did. Be it historical, linguistic, technological, mathematical… Muska was a genius at everything. He had gotten past the grade schools and into the advanced schooling by the time he was thirteen, and had finished his schooling, all of it, by his eighteenth birthday. He had traveled around, and by the time he was twenty, he had acquired a government job. He couldn't remember how many times he had to change his appearance over the years, but he knew it was far too many for his liking. He had decided it would be best if he didn't look the same for seven hundred years. It would've made people suspicious of him.

He remembered Sheeta, meeting her for the first time; she had been a little girl. He had taken her away with him, under the false pretense of being a guardian. But in reality, she was like him. Laputian. He took her away not because he wanted to be cruel, well, that wasn't the original intent, but because he didn't want some human boy to muddy her blood when she got older. If he was to continue the royal line, he needed a pure Laputian. But what he remembered most about Sheeta was the look she gave him before she spoke the spell of destruction with that insolent peasant boy, Pazu. And the way she looked at him had been with pity. He hated that. But at the same time, he loved it.

"Dammit Sheeta…"

Muska finally mustered up the energy to get out of the bed, although pain still shot through his body. He stumbled to the washroom and tore off the bandages around his chest and arms. What he saw underneath them was a shock. Scars… Whatever had cut him had volucite in it. Volucite was the one thing that could kill him. Laputians were virtually immune to everything else; he could have been shot by Pazu, but he would have healed. Volucite was his weakness… well, other than Sheeta. If she had willed him dead, he would have taken his own life. He sighed, tracing one of the scars. It ran across his chest, from his shoulder to his hip. He shook his head. It hurt… but it was nothing compared to the pain of losing Sheeta to Pazu.

When he left the washroom, he spotted a sketchbook. He sighed and picked it up. He took the graphite that was next to it, and skillfully drew a picture of Sheeta. It was amazing, his accuracy, but that was something that came with a photographic memory. He drew her asleep. He noted how peaceful she had looked when she was asleep. He remembered touching her cheek, wishing that he could comfort her, wishing that he wasn't going mad… He felt his spirit breaking even more. He threw the sketchbook to the ground and put the graphite down on the table again. He went over to the bed and sat down on it. He buried his face in his hands and cried. He cried because he knew she was gone forever. Off on some journey with Pazu, somewhere far away from him. He hated that Pazu had taken her, he hated how Pazu had ruined every one of his plans. The boy was but sixteen at the time. But Muska vowed that he would never stop looking for Sheeta. He … he needed her. Why, he wasn't sure. She probably wouldn't cooperate, and he would be forced to drastic measures again… but that didn't matter. If he had to, he would kill Pazu. He flopped back on the bed and rolled over, pulling the covers over his head, as he had when he was a child. For now, he would have to rely on his memory… a wonderful gift, but not as good as reality. He would have to rely on memories of Sheeta to keep going… to keep living. He knew Laputa wasn't really gone… the inner city was still there… but the weapons, the technology, the science that he loved… all gone. He would build an airship and return home… where he would stay. Even if he was alone, he would stay in Laputa, and earn the forgiveness of the life that remained. But as he slowly drifted back into the darkness of sleep, he imagined Sheeta. He imagined her there, beside him. And then… nothingness.


	2. II

II

The light that burst in through the window in the morning was a little too bright. After being nearly blinded by the bright flash from the very pendant he now wore, Muska wasn't ready to wake up and face the sunlight. He pulled the covers over his head a little more and groaned. But he knew that he needed to wake up. He had to find Sheeta. He finally threw the covers off and rolled out of the bed. It was still very bright. He made his way over to the washroom, where he bathed, ruffled up his hair, and finally felt awake. He looked in the mirror. With his ruffled hair, he looked a little like a golden haired adult Pazu, which wasn't a good feeling. Well, it would have to do though. He knew that the government would be searching for him. And for good measure, he turned his hair a raven black and changed his golden eyes to a midnight blue. He found his clothes, repaired and folded, at the foot of the bed. He looked at them for a moment, and shook his head. He threw on the shirt and pants, and left the jacket folded neatly. He decided that it was too nice of a day to wear shoes, and he was only going to the village. He headed outside and shielded his eyes for a moment from the bright light. He finally adjusted to the light and started to head toward the village.

When he went to the village, he got some strange looks, but nobody seemed to know who he was, so that was good. He headed to a carpenter's shop and looked around.

"Anyone here?"

An old carpenter came out and looked at Muska.

"Hello, young man," the carpenter smiled at Muska.

Young… well, Muska took it as a compliment. He smiled back at the carpenter. "I'm new here, and I was looking for a place to get a job."

"Have you built anything before?"

Muska nodded. "My father taught me how to build flying machines before he died." It wasn't a lie, but it had been a long time since Muska had seen his father. Hundreds of years…

The old carpenter smiled. "So you're like that Pazu boy, hmm? Well, come in, let's see what you can do."

Pazu… so this man knew Pazu. Muska would ask about the boy's whereabouts later. It was a little weird being compared to Pazu. He headed back with the old carpenter and took a look at the workshop. The carpenter showed him around and patted him on the back.

"I'll give you a few hours to make something small. It will show me where you need to improve."

Muska nodded. When the old carpenter had left, Muska quickly grabbed some wood and started working on his first project as a… human.

A few hours later, the old carpenter came back. Muska looked up and smiled. "Here, I made this."

He handed the carpenter a model of an airship. The airship looked like it would fly, so the old carpenter threw it and watched in awe as it did. Muska watched as the model airship landed on the ground. The old carpenter smiled. "Alright then, I guess you're more than an apprentice. You can help out around here, and I'll let you use my workshop to make whatever you need to make."

Muska nodded. "Thank you."

When the old carpenter had left again, Muska started to draw out plans for a real airship. He designed a ship that looked like an eagle; its wings would be able to move like those of a bird. Upon finishing the design, he headed outside and looked up. A giant cloud was overhead, with a few others surrounding it. He pulled the crystal out from under his shirt. It glowed with a strange light. He remembered seeing Laputa float away, but there it was, the cloud that had hidden Laputa for so long. He headed back into the workshop and cleaned up the mess, making sure everything was nice and tidy. It was getting late. He called to the old carpenter that he was going back home. The old carpenter called back and told Muska to return in the morning.

When Muska left the workshop, it was dark outside. People bustled around getting food and going home. Muska decided that he could just finish up the food that the old woman had left him. He started to head home when he heard thunder and saw flashes of lighting. Alright, now it was time to run home. He dodged a few villagers and skidded down a hill. It had started to rain. He sighed. As he went back inside his shelter, it really wasn't his house, he let his hair and eyes turn golden again. He took off his shirt and hung it up so that it would dry. He slightly regretted not wearing shoes, his feet hurt from running around in the carpenter's workshop. He sat down on the bed and sighed. When would he find her? Would he find her? He wanted to take her away to Laputa, or what remained of it. He'd finish the airship and take her home, where she really belonged. But he knew that Pazu had probably taken her on an adventure somewhere far away. Muska hated Pazu, he hated how the boy had looked at Sheeta, how he had laughed with her, and held her hand… But that was in the past. He growled a bit and slammed his fist into a wall. The wall now had a crack in it. Muska watched as his hand healed. Well, at least his blood was still pure. But Sheeta… Pazu had probably muddied her blood. Muska looked over at the sketchbook. He picked it up and looked at the picture he had drawn of Sheeta asleep. He flipped to another page and drew a picture of Laputa, as he remembered it as a child. And on the page after that, he drew it as it was when he returned. He drew some Laputian people, and then drew some airship designs. He wrote down what he remembered of the spells he had learned as a child. He drew another picture of Sheeta. He felt himself getting tired again. He closed the sketchbook and put the graphite on the bedside table. He looked up at the ceiling and imagined that he was in his room in Laputa.

"_Why is everyone leaving?"_

_Romuska ran to his father, the king of Laputa, Ezero. The king turned to look at his small son and ruffled the boy's hair._

"_There is more profit on the land now." A lie that the little prince saw right through but didn't protest to. _

"_So… do I have to go too?"_

"_I would recommend it, but if you wish to stay…"_

"_I want to stay here. It's beautiful in the sky, and we have no worries."_

_A few years passed, Romuska's seventh birthday arrived, but he didn't celebrate. He was mourning for the dead of the other cities. The other floating cities had fallen to the ground, and Romuska had even witnessed some of the tragedy. _

_Soon, Romuska watched as all the people left. Even his father left eventually. And before his mother, Daela, left, she gave him a volucite pendant. _

"_This will keep you safe. Never give it away."_

"_Alright."_

_And then Romuska was alone in Laputa._


End file.
